Weight loss
It is not an early sign of breast cancer. Instead, patients with breast cancer do not experience weight loss until a late stage of the disease, and often as their treatment begins. However, it can be listed as a sign of breast cancer as well as any other type of cancer.
Weight loss in cancer results from a reduction in the availability of nutrients for the rest of the body. The tumor increases the blood flow in the nearby tissues to get more oxygen and nutrients from the organism. Thus, cancer patients often experience a wasting syndrome characterized by weight loss, low appetite, and low energy levels.
In breast cancer, weight loss usually appears when the cancer cells have spread to distant tissues. It is often a symptom of metastasis to the liver, and doctors agree that patients who experience severe weight loss usually have a more aggressive tumor with an adverse prognosis.
